Riding the Wave of Technology - our future beyond all the current talk... towards evolution

What is in line for our future?... Evolution of course... So before we start with the serious stuff, here is Homer's view on evolution...,

But then, where do we go from here?
TED have once again provided a summary, encapsulated in an entertaining video..

Crowdsourcing : The new weapon of cyber war

The power of thousands of individuals acting en masse has become a weapon of war. While politicians, revolutionaries, and totalitarian governments have long known how to send crowds of protesters to the streets to parade in front of the television cameras, the new trend is to mobilize forces over the Internet to engage in the equivalent of mass online protests. In some case the results can be humorous. In others, not. Remember Mr. Splashy Pants? In an attempt to garner sympathy for its cause Green Peace posted a poll to choose a name for a whale. A call to the members of Reddit , the hugely popular social bookmarking site, was put out. It read: Greenpeace are having a vote to name a whale they have ‘adopted’. All the options are the names of ancient gods of the sea. And then there’s ‘Mister Splashy Pants’. Please vote ‘Mister Splashy Pants’.

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How Do You Feel Right Now?

Change This is quite a unique on-line service. It engages thought leaders to write provocative opinions on any topic with the purpose of changing and enhancing people's view. The material is always high quality and available in a .pdf file to download and there is no advertising. How they keep it together I don't know. I think there their latest release is very insightful "...In November of last year, we sent out a survey to gauge the mood of ChangeThis readers and see if they could help provide some solutions and encouragement for ourselves and each other. After many months of immense change, both in the country as a whole and within our small company, we have finally finished sifting through those responses

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IdeaPort : strategic innovation, foresight, and futures thinking.

From the Dec/Jan 09 issue of Fast Company magazine comes a great article about Cisco. Several paragraphs of note including: Get ready for the upturn. “What’s our vision for where this industry is going with or without us?” That, [CEO John Cambers] says, is a five-year horizon. “What is our differentiated strategy within that vision?” That’s a two- to four-year plan. “How are we going to execute in the next 12 to 18 months?” Chambers is convinced that the role of the CEO has to morph. He recalls a lesson he learned working for An Wang of Wang Laboratories, whom he has often called one of the smartest people he’s ever known: “One person cannot anticipate a market transition. At Wang, we transitioned four times, but we missed the fifth, from mini computers to PC and software. If you don’t catch them [all], you leave your company behind.”

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Does marketing for SME's equivocate the needs of larger organisations in our current economy

Recently I caught up with an old aquaintance who had some information relevant to SME's and their marketing. It is interesting how these ideas can also be applied to larger organisations Here is a summary... The talk of the economy and its impact on SME’s surrounds us daily. The media reinforces the tough times that consumers are currently experiencing and the business world watches on as the ASX continues to fluctuate. This is weakening both consumer confidence and the consumer spending that has been buoying our economy for the last 12 years or more. Obviously this downturn in spending and confidence sees many companies ‘retreat’ (cut their marketing budgets) in order to weather the financial storm. This strategy of course is an easy one to justify (especially by those responsible for finances) and has the added advantage of seemingly bolstering (some would say, camouflaging) earnings by simply cutting marketing costs as an expense to the company.

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